[Spoilers] luddite tries to remember how this game works

[luddite]

Commodore- yes, that was my thinking. I don't need tech for new units. Even if I fall way behind and they have, say, rifles, that doesn't exactly stop artillery. Even against tanks I have anti tanks. The only real threat is the naval units, where frigates would be a big problem.

Chumchi- I think it's not going to be an exact whip count. But yeah, I'm thinking I'll try to get lighthouses after granaries. I guess if no one has built the great lighthouse by then I'll give it a shot, but I expect it to fall quickly.

[luddite]

Someone got the Great Lighthouse this turn. Must be either Scooter or Oxy since their score went up. But no one has meditation yet, so hopefully I can grab it next turn.

Some more screenies. Dulle griet grew into size 3 and unhappiness (2 whip unhappy, one will go away next turn). I thought that when it was building a settler the unhappy citizen didn't eat, but apparently that's wrong. what's the rule with that? Mr Cairo has his scout hanging around, seeing my empty cities... I kind of wish that would go away. Maybe I'll kill it with a warrior and make peace, if I get the chance.
   

I can now see Mr Cairo's 3rd city in the north, which he settled towards me. I feel pressured to race for the border cities now. I don't have many other spots to settle, while he still has a lot of empty land in his back lines. There's also land over to the west that I haven't explored yet, but I might get cut off if he settles further down.
   

Still no sign of anyone else. Since this is a Big and Small map, I'm now thinking that this is the "small" continent and I'm semi-isolated with Mr Cairo as my only neighbor.

[luddite]

Thinking about it more, the person who built the Great Lighthouse is almost certainly Oxy. He's got the best/fastest start, and it includes a coastal capital. Scooter isn't coastal, and I know Mr Cairo didn't build it. That's going to be huge for Oxy- he can endlessly spam out Imp/Exp State Property cities with bonus trade routes and terraces now. It pretty much solves his one weakness from not being financial. I'm really hoping that one of the other players *cough* yuris *cough* goes to war against him before it's too late.

[Tarkeel]

Some more screenies. Dulle griet grew into size 3 and unhappiness (2 whip unhappy, one will go away next turn). I thought that when it was building a settler the unhappy citizen didn't eat, but apparently that's wrong. what's the rule with that?

A city with a full food box (due to previous avoid-growth) will grow even when building workers and settlers.


I'm curious, why did you settle Rodman at its current location?

[luddite]

Well, shit. I may be dead here. I just moved up my scouting warrior and found a musketeer headed my way:
   

It's still far away, but can get to either Rodman or my capital in only 4 turns. I still don't have copper hooked up. It's going to take me 3 turns to grow to size 4, and then I think another 3 or 4 turns to get enough hammers into an Anti-tank to whip it. Maybe I can shave a turn off that by chopping the deer forest.

If he attacks me- and that seems very likely- I don't have a lot of good options here. I still don't have copper hooked up. It would take me 4 turns to research archery. I only have two warriors in my core cities. I could build more and maybe delay a turn, but they're unlikely to even scratch a musketeer. Also his power spiked this turn, so there's probably more on the way.

Other than that, I met scooter this turn, so we're not isolated. And I can get buddhism, if I still want it.

Tarkeel- Thanks for clarifying about the settler growth. I built Rodman where it is because I wanted both food and wheat in the first ring for the fastest growth. Unfortunately that meant delaying copper... which may come back to bite me now.

I'm going to wait a bit to play my turn and try to think if there's anything I can do.

[luddite]

OK... thinking it over. I don't think I'm *completely* screwed yet, but this is going to be tough. If I just had a *few* more turns to prepare I would have been fine. Or a few turns earlier when I still had forests to chop... this is really the worst possible timing for me.

Mr Cairo is going to hit me with that musketeer in 4 turns. He's already moved this turn, but I still only get 4 turns of production before he can attack. (unless we shift to sequential turns before then? But we agreed on turn 60 for that). I don't know which city he'd attack, but presumably either Rodman or the capital. He can't quite fork them and hit them both because the forest deer is in the way, but he can threaten both and move to whichever I don't protect.

I don't have anything that can really touch a musket yet, but I can build warriors. Rodman can whip a warrior next turn, overflow finishes another warrior, and potentially chop (from the forest hill) a third. I've also got that one that just finished in the capital, 1 in Dulle to the east, and Tsar in the south can whip 2 warriors starting next turn. So I could stack up, say, 4 warriors in Rodman and 3 in the capital. This will mean putting Dulle into unhappiness though.

1 AT costs 120. I can 2-pop whip it at 60 hammers, assuming I have a size 4 capital.
Capital currently has 8 hammer overflow and 7/26 food. Size 3. I could work deer/deer/pig mine for two turns (8 food surplus, 5 production), then switch a deer to a mine (4 food surplus, 8 production), grow to size 4 after 3 turns. That would give me 8 (overflow) + 5 + 5 + 8 = 26 production. 4th turn, it works 4 mines (including a newly built mine) for -1 food, 13 production. total 39 hammers. Throw in 20 hammers from chopping the deer forest... 59 hammers. Short by ONE measly hammer.    

Assuming my math is right and there's no faster way to build it, it will take me 5 turns of production to get enough hammers to whip an AT. then it will finish after that, so 6 turns. But if I fill up my capital with 3 warriors I can just, just barely, hang on for 6 turns for it to finish.

That at least keeps my capital alive. I don't see any way to save Rodman if he goes for it, or any other city. But if I can save the capital and build an AT, maybe I can take back whatever city I lose.

[Tarkeel]

Mr Cairo is going to hit me with that musketeer in 4 turns. He's already moved this turn, but I still only get 4 turns of production before he can attack. (unless we shift to sequential turns before then? But we agreed on turn 60 for that). I don't know which city he'd attack, but presumably either Rodman or the capital. He can't quite fork them and hit them both because the forest deer is in the way, but he can threaten both and move to whichever I don't protect.

We really need to swap to sequential now, or at the very least the turn split needs to follow the player ID order so there are no double-moves when we swap to sequential.

[luddite]

Mr Cairo is going to hit me with that musketeer in 4 turns. He's already moved this turn, but I still only get 4 turns of production before he can attack. (unless we shift to sequential turns before then? But we agreed on turn 60 for that). I don't know which city he'd attack, but presumably either Rodman or the capital. He can't quite fork them and hit them both because the forest deer is in the way, but he can threaten both and move to whichever I don't protect.

We really need to swap to sequential now, or at the very least the turn split needs to follow the player ID order so there are no double-moves when we swap to sequential.

Yeah, a double move here could really mess things up. Thanks for posting in the tech thread. I didn't know how to phrase without being like "uh, there's obviously going to be a war here very soon..."

[luddite]

This was a very difficult and not at all fun turn to play.

   

So yes, he does have a 2nd musketeer. That makes my defense decisions even harder. It's going to take me 4 turns to produce an AT in the capital, and that's with chopping the deer-forest. He can move up and hit me once after 2 turns, then twice each turn after that, so I have to get a total of 6 warriors in my capital to survive that long. I can do it but it requires sacrificing basically everything else. If he goes after other cities or pillages then it will suck for me in the long term, but at least I'll survive in the short term. Here's what that looks like:
   

It was very difficult to play this out when I have to think multiple turns in advance, and he can move 2 tiles anywhere he wants. He can move around my own territory faster than I can, since I don't have a lot of roads yet and the river limits my movement without construction. Everything just feels like it's 1 hammer or 1 turn out of reach. EG, my capital will get to 59 hammers when I really, really need 60 for a whip, and I can't think of any way to improve that.

On the plus side: There doesn't seem to be a 3rd musketeer, and i'll get archery in 2 turns which might help.

[luddite]

Scooter wants open borders. Will that give me trade routes to him if I say yes? Or does it only go to him, since I haven't scouted a route to his cities yet?